


The Future Is Yours

by SkullyMane



Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: Alternate Canon, Alternate Ending, Canon Universe, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-02
Updated: 2018-06-02
Packaged: 2019-05-17 07:22:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14827935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SkullyMane/pseuds/SkullyMane
Summary: The tale of Bardock, father of Goku, is one that's already been given an ending. A lone warrior stood before the tyrant known and feared throughout the universe as Lord Frieza, only to be erased along with his home world. Justice wouldn't be carried out until many years later, when that warrior's son finally comes face to face with the one responsible.However, the future is never set in stone and even fate can be changed by our hopes and dreams.This is your chance to choose, to decide for yourself whether the ending you've been given is the truth or...Is there still another path to be taken?





	The Future Is Yours

**Author's Note:**

> Yo!
> 
> Long story short, I was watching some Dragon Ball FighterZ tournaments and that led to me seeing the dramatic finishes between Bardock and Frieza. Then THAT led to me going back to re-watch the Bardock movie and its horrible, piece of shit sequel. I really love the idea of Bardock somehow pulling through and winning, so that's what this story is about. It's not crazy long, but there's gonna be 2 more chapters that are each their own separate endings. (Which will be uploaded very soon, I promise!) I recommend reading the ending that you would honestly want to be canon first, and then going back to the other afterwards if you want to. (You know, 'cause of pacing and junk.) However, there are a few things I've altered from the raw in-universe canon that you should know before reading it:
> 
> I MADE BARDOCK MORE OF A SWEETHEART THAT LOVES HIS TEAM AND FAMILY
> 
> FRIEZA HAS RULED PLANET VEGETA SINCE BEFORE BARDOCK WAS BORN
> 
> THE WAY/REASON SAIYANS "ENLIST" IN FRIEZA'S ARMY IS DIFFERENT
> 
> KING VEGETA FOUND OUT ABOUT FRIEZA'S PLAN TO DESTROY THE SAIYANS BECAUSE OF BARDOCK'S OUTBURST WHEN HE WAS LOOKING FOR HELP
> 
> BARDOCK'S ZENKAI BOOST(S) ARE MORE PRONOUNCED, WHICH MEANS HE'S STRONGER THAN IN CANON
> 
> I INCLUDED AN EXPLANATION FOR WHY PEOPLE CAN FUCKING SURVIVE IN OUTER SPACE
> 
> Please direct all other questions, comments and complaints to the comment section below so that I can respond to them<3

Bardock had finally made it.

Even though he was bloodied, battered and bruised to the point where he could barely stay conscious, with his armor in shambles… 

Even though he was surrounded on all sides by legions of Frieza’s elite soldiers… 

Even though he was all alone and his desperate plea for help had been almost completely ignored…

He, through sheer force of will and raw determination, now stood opposite the one planning to obliterate nearly every shred of evidence that the Saiyan race had ever existed:

 

F R I E Z A

 

The tyrant’s onyx lips curled into an amused grin after emerging to see who was responsible for the frontal assault on his ship. A quick glance at the debris and corpses still floating in the space just above Planet Vegeta’s upper atmosphere told Frieza everything he needed to know. From his vantage point above his flagship, the horned ruler surmised that the raven haired Saiyan was the culprit.

“So, you must be the monkey that tipped off your former king to my plans.”

Bardock’s expression wavered only slightly at Frieza’s words, but the tyrant was equally observant as he was cruel.

“Oh? I suppose it makes sense that you wouldn’t know, considering it took place so very recently. It seems your king was rather impatient and refused to wait for me to destroy the planet, so I graciously gave him a head start into the afterlife.”

King Vegeta was dead…?

The news would have been enough to demoralize almost any other Saiyan warrior. After all, every member of their race knew that the King was the strongest among them without peer. However, Bardock couldn’t care less if the one hailed as the strongest Saiyan was dead. 

As long as Bardock continued to draw breath, the only thing that mattered to him was getting revenge for his comrades and to protect the planet where his remaining family resided.

Bardock’s hands slowly clenched into fists as the memory of what he’d found upon arriving at Planet Meat surged back with vicious clarity. Not even the snippets of the future his newfound psychic vision forced upon him came anywhere close to being as visceral and gut wrenching as that time.

When he’d been too late.

“Frieza...! You’ll pay in blood for everything you’ve done!!!”

 

\- - - - - - - - - -

 

Bardock’s team had been killed.

His squad, the ones he’d fought alongside countless times, the ones he considered family, despite the lack of any blood relation... Seripa, Toteppo, and Panbukin had all been dead long before Bardock’s Attack Ball ever touched down on Planet Meat. The sight of their bodies, broken and mangled nearly beyond recognition, had come dangerously close to shattering Bardock’s spirit.

However, the sound of labored breathing had brought him back to his senses.

Finding Toma alive amid the death and carnage had sent relief washing over Bardock in a way he’d only ever felt once before; when Gine had amazed the medical team by surviving the birth of their youngest son, Kakarrot. 

Unfortunately, the relief was short lived because Toma’s life had been swiftly fading. His injuries had been so severe that they’d both known there simply wasn’t enough time to reach a medical facility. Toma only needed one look at Bardock’s face to understand he wasn’t going to make it.

So, Toma had used the last moments of his life to give Bardock the truth behind his squad’s demise. 

He’d choked out the details of how they’d been ambushed by Dodoria and his personal group of elites. How the spiky pink alien had gloated over being sent by Frieza himself to wipe out the Saiyan warriors after taunting them with the tyrant’s plan to commit genocide on their race. 

Bardock’s lack of surprise at this information would forever be a mystery to Toma, since the dying Saiyan still didn’t know about his friend’s visions of the future. Bardock, however, took the news as a confirmation of what he’d been writing off as delusions leftover from his injuries.

The Kanassan that had ambushed him after his planet’s defeat at the Saiyan’s hands had told the truth. What Bardock had seen really WERE glimpses into the future... 

All too soon, Toma had died in Bardock’s arms after anguishing over Frieza’s plan to destroy the Saiyan race and entrusting his best friend with the grim task of avenging them.

Bardock’s heart ached and cried out at the pain of losing his friends like this, but he’d clamped down on the sorrow threatening to overwhelm him. Instead of giving in to despair, Bardock chose to carry out Toma’s final request and do whatever it took to wipe Frieza from the face of the universe. Taking Toma’s armband with a trembling hand, Bardock had done what little he could to clean his friends face of the blood and dirt left from his final battle.

It was the least he could do since any sort of proper burial just wasn’t possible then.

Just as Bardock placed the strip of fabric, now eternally stained crimson, around his head as a way of carrying his fallen comrades with him to what might very well be his own death; a voice had called out to him while he still held Toma’s corpse in his arms.

“Well, well, looky here. I guess I must be gettin’ rusty because I coulda sworn that all the filthy apes around here were already dead.”

Bardock had spun to face the voice, only to be greeted by the light of a ki blast launched from Dodoria’s mouth. The attack had caught him completely by surprise and the fact he’d managed to survive had been nothing short of a miracle. It had only been thanks to Toma’s body somehow taking the brunt of the blast that he’d been able to get back up once Dodoria left.

Wounded and rapidly approaching his stamina’s limit, Bardock had rushed to his Attack Ball and made his way back to Planet Vegeta at a breakneck pace. However, the ones he tried to warn after landing only laughed him off as being delusional due to the loss of his team in what they’d all been told was a normal mission. Even Bardock’s reputation as a hero to the lower class Saiyans did little to help him against the ridiculous claim that Frieza had suddenly decided to destroy them all.

So, Bardock had been forced to stand against fate alone.

Against his better judgment, Bardock used some of the fleeting time remaining to him to visit his wife for what might be the last time. Thankfully though, both of his sons were off planet and still had a chance of survival should their father fail. Raditz was working on an assignment on the edge of the system and Kakarrot was still in route to Earth.

A small blessing, but Bardock couldn’t afford to dwell on the consequences of failure for too long. 

After reaching the meat processing plant where his wife worked, Bardock had intimidated her supervisor into letting them speak briefly. Gine had immediately panicked over his ragged appearance and only calmed down after being told time was of the essence. Bardock had conveyed in as few words as possible their dire situation, as well as telling her the most important thing of all.

He loved her.

Gine knew all too well that she’d only be a burden if she followed him and, like countless times before, cursed her own weakness with every fiber of her being. With only a promise of his success preventing her from foolishly tagging along with him, Bardock had left his tear stained wife behind and flown off to face destiny. She could only place every bit of faith she had that her husband, the kind Saiyan that had shed so much of his own blood for his friends and family, wouldn’t break his promise to win and come back home to her.

Gine had no idea that Bardock had already seen the future due to the Kanassan’s gift. So, the smile Bardock gave his wife when he assured her there was no way in hell he’d ever be beaten by the likes of Frieza had been as empty as his heart when he finally said goodbye.

Bardock had never been known to lie before, but there was a first time for everything.

 

\- - - - - - - - - -

 

“So, did you really think that one, pathetic and wretched monkey would be enough to defeat me, Lord Frieza?”

The grating sound of Frieza’s voice broke Bardock out of his exhausted reverie. 

Even after seeing how Bardock had torn though Frieza’s elite guard like they were nothing more than cannon fodder, the white and purple tyrant still spoke as though reprimanding a misbehaving child. Nothing about Frieza’s haughty attitude conveyed the slightest sense that he was taking any of this seriously.

Bardock opened his mouth to reply, but suddenly his vision split into two conflicting images as his body’s fatigue finally caught up with him. His ki flickered and began to wane like a dying candle and only the pain from biting the inside of his cheek hard enough to draw blood kept him conscious. 

If he passed out now, the vacuum of space would kill him in an instant without his ki’s aura to keep it at bay.

“What’s the matter? Has the tiny ape forgotten how to talk?”

Frieza broke out into a fit of manic laughter as he continued to treat Bardock as a passing form of amusement, instead of a warrior that had come to kill him.

“You…! You MONSTER!!!”

Bardock’s rage flared back up like an unquenchable inferno and with it, so too did his ki spike back into something resembling top form. Waves of power rolled off of Bardock’s body and the nearest Frieza soldiers instinctively backed away as the Saiyan’s murderous ki sent shivers down their spines.

“All you’ve ever done is use us for your own gain… Forcing us to commit atrocities in your name and then acting like you can just dispose of us like garbage!”

The Saiyan’s blood boiled as he let out all of his frustrations from a lifetime of slavery under the tyrant’s heartless rule. Even if he’d shed enough innocent blood of his own to last several lifetimes, Bardock would do it all over again if it meant keeping his friends and family safe. 

All because the threat of execution constantly loomed overhead each and every Saiyan ever since Frieza had brought Planet Vegeta under his control.

If you didn’t enlist in Frieza’s army, then you and everyone that shared your blood was strung up to serve as an example of what happened to traitors. The only way to protect those too weak to fight on the tyrant’s behalf was to take on their workload yourself. That’s why Bardock had never once turned down a mission and never shied away from combat a single time since he’d come of age. All so that he could prevent the ones he loved from suffering the same fate. 

When Gine had been placed under his command, Bardock had narrowly avoided death far too many times while protecting her. It was only after accepting the borderline kamikaze mission to Kanassa that Frieza’s officers had reluctantly allowed her transfer to the meat processing plant she now worked in. 

Every low class Saiyan knew that each and every scar on the veteran Saiyan warrior’s body served as proof of his selfless service on the battlefield.

...But despite his good intentions, Bardock knew all of the evil he’d done on Frieza’s behalf could never be truly forgiven. Which was why he’d long since decided that his eventual death would be atonement enough. With that thought burning in his heart, Bardock gathered up what little energy remained to him and aimed it at where Frieza sat in his floating throne pod.

One of them was going to die today, that’s all there was to it.

“I don’t care if you killed King Vegeta and I don’t care if you think I’m too weak to be a threat. I’m done being your slave and I will set the entire Saiyan race free by myself if that’s what it takes! Your time as ruler is over, Frieza!”

Frieza’s playful smirk turned into a mildly irritated frown as Bardock’s speech soured the tyrant’s otherwise good mood. The only thing keeping him from immediately destroying the Saiyan’s planet now was a sense of cruel curiosity as to exactly how strong this lone warrior really was. 

After all, the number of individuals that had the courage, or usually lack of self preservation, to face Frieza alone was quite small. So, even though his Scouter registered Bardock as being only a fraction stronger than the late King Vegeta, Frieza decided to humor him. 

And really, what was the harm in a little entertainment before the final act? It wasn’t as thought the struggle of an insect like this would make any difference in the end, no matter how much the bug in question might think otherwise.

Meanwhile, Bardock concentrated on pulling out every scrap of power he could. He couldn’t afford to hold anything back, so even the minute glimmers of ki that hid within each drop of his blood swam up to the surface. A sharp, biting pain filled him as the very life force that let his heart continue beating was strained to the breaking point for the sake of this one blow. 

Bardock’s hand was soon aflame with blue ki, a visual representation of the absolute last bits of strength he could possibly muster up in his current condition. Bardock felt the dried blood in his headband burn like a band of molten iron on his forehead as he leveled his attack at Frieza.

He wasn’t going to lose, he couldn’t lose... He REFUSED to lose to him!

It didn’t matter if the future showed him dying as his planet was destroyed; he’d just grab hold of fate and change it right here and now!

“Take this, Frieza! The might... of the Saiyan race! Our anger! Our hope! And all of our sorrow!!!”

Bardock hurled the last chance for the survival of his people, his family and his planet with a shout fueled by an unshakable faith that his final strike would be something even Frieza couldn’t ignore.

This was it. 

The moment where destiny would either follow its set path or be shattered into something entirely new.

As time seemed to slow to less than a crawl, the sight of his attack flying towards its target filled Bardock with…

 

. . . . . . . . . .

 

. . . . . . . . . .

 

. . . . . . . . . .

 

. . . . . . . . . .

 

 

[TIME AND SPACE HAVE CONVENED INTO A CROSSROADS THAT NOT EVEN DESTINY CAN INFLUENCE]

 

[IT IS HERE THAT ONLY YOU CAN DECIDE]

 

[WHICH PATH DOES YOUR HEART BELIEVE TO BE TRUE?]

 

[NOW IS THE MOMENT TO CHOOSE]

 

[IS THE TRUTH A PATH TO NIGHTFALL FILLED WITH DOUBT?]

 

[OR…]

 

[IS IT ONE OF HOPE ON ITS WAY TOWARDS THE SUNRISE?]

 

[THERE CAN BE NO REGRETS]

 

 

[THE ONLY REAL ENDING IS THE ONE WE CHOOSE FOR OURSELVES]

**Author's Note:**

> Choose from either the chapter titled "Doubt" or "Hope" depending on your answer to the question posed at the end of this chapter.
> 
> That will be the ending that YOU consider to be the truth.
> 
> I hope you enjoy.


End file.
